I fully expected a red ribbon for this bag. I was totally surprised to hear it won the Reserve Champion in its category.

Is that red bright enough for you???? A more neutral background would have looked better, especially with the variety of items exhibited.

This is a piece of Romanian Point Lace I designed a year or so ago, inspired by some henna painting during my daughter-in-law's bridal shower. This is another lace I want to pursue more. I'm not big on tape lace but I do love this particular kind.

My needle lace leaves only got a red but I did not expect anything better. They're colorful but the stitching leaves much to be desired yet. (pun wasn't intended but certainly applicable!)

You can check out my tatted lace on my other blog, Threads of a Tatting Goddess. I won Sweepstakes with my tatted necklace and earrings and some blue ribbons on other tatted items.

Here's the embroidered bag complete. It's going into the fair this week. I actually followed the instructions on the bag pretty much except I did add a second layer of the muslin and left the same length since the embroidered part covered it up. I also added a thin interfacing. It was very simple to put together, far simpler than I first thought. I need to find a way to mark scallops so that they are stitched precisely. It looked good til I turned it out and I couldn't quite figure out why it didn't look so good on the finished side. The center scallop in particular is not right but it looked perfect on the wrong side. I even ran my smooth crochet hook inside along the seam to make sure it was completely turned.

Ah well, this was my practice piece (and a last minute decision to put in the fair). I always learn from the first try. I've never used stabilizer before, partly because I've not done all that much embroidery, especially in recent years. I might embroider the next one on a heavier fabric but whether I do or not, I think the stabilizer might help hide the threads in the back or the lining from showing through. On this one, the background fabric and lining was a strong dark color which showed through the muslin. That's why I added a 2nd layer of muslin. The threads themselves were not a problem as I hid them well within the stitching. I will also use a heavier interfacing when I do this again, unless my fabric is heavy which it probably won't be. I also want to do something different with the fastener. I did not want to use a snap as the instructions indicated but at this late date, it wouldn't pay to experiment. I prefer a buttonhole or frog closure to snaps. Even velcro in some cases. Next time I will topstitch or edgestitch too.

I do love those little flower faces though and can't wait to try out another color combination. The original had the buttonhole stitches spaced farther apart so I might try that too. There is a bigger version of this one and there is another embroidery pattern, with different flower faces, that I want to try too. This is the first time I've entered something in the Surface Stitchery category and I'm not expecting any recognition. I've seen the stitchery of others and it's beautiful. Still...it's a start. My camera has been a bit tricky lately. This was the least washed out looking. I'm not sure what is going on, other than it is overexposed. The shutter is delayed when I try the macro, even though I've done nothing with the time element. I tried "resetting" the settings last night but did not notice a significant difference. I'll have to find the book and see what it says. It doesn't delay with the "normal" mode but it still didn't show the color right. (So I scanned it and for a change, the scanned image was better than the camera!)

We were having a "spangling bobbins" program in my lace group at the weekend so I was trying to get my last unfinished pairs ready. I didn't. This is the next day. LOL! I still have the white pair to finish.

I haven't decided what I will put on there yet. The others are done except for spangling. I want to put another coat or two of clear on the purple ones. They have little stars and the points did not lay down nicely so I have to make sure all the gaps are filled in with the clear coat so they won't catch.

And lastly, I did finish the 1st square on the needlelace sampler but I didn't like it at all so I snipped it out. Will work on it when things settle down. I also haven't finished the bobbinlace bookmark. Bummer!